TEACHERS' PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF VIRTUAL INFORMAL ENVIRONMENTS IN THE PANDEMIC CONTEXT

Since the pandemic situation, there has been a need for enacting student-centered teaching activities to make distance education more effective. "Informal Learning Environments" activities are suitable opportunities to meet this need and positively affect students in many aspects. The use of "Virtual Informal Environments" (VIE) is important during the pandemic situation in this case. The purpose of this research is to examine the teaching processes of teachers using VIEs during the pandemic situation and to make general judgements in the context of teaching processes using VIEs according to their status of taking or not taking courses on teaching in informal environments. In the study, the descriptive research method was used. The study group of the research consists of 93 teachers and it was determined by using the "Easy Access Sampling" method. Eight open-ended question forms were applied to the participants. The data were evaluated with the Content Analysis Method. The results showed that the Informal Science Education (ISE) course-taken teachers used VIEs more consciously than the non-course-taken participants. By focusing on the achievements in the curriculum, teachers planned to use VIEs and integrate these environments into their lessons by adopting a student-centered approach. In the evaluation studies after the teaching activities using VIEs, it was concluded that they tend to evaluate the achievements, not the learning process.

and stated that they can be accepted as science teaching environments and environments where activities can be done.This result has been interpreted by the researchers as a sign that technology will make some difficulties more ineffective.
As it is understood, it is very valuable to carry out teaching activities in informal environments.At this point, our teachers, who are the planner, implementers, and evaluators of these activities, have a great responsibility.The more accurately, consciously, student-centered, and efficient the planning of the pre-trip, during the trip and post-trip sections that constitute the teaching activities process in informal environments, the more our teachers will reap the fruits of their efforts.To support these, there are a lot of courses such as Informal (Out of School) Learning Environments Information Seminar for teachers according to MEB in their guidebook entitled Millî Eğitim Bakanliği Okul Dişi Öğrenme Ortamlari Kilavuzu.In this research, it was estimated that the teachers, who participated in this type of course, were more aware and equipped about teaching in informal environments than the course-taken teachers.
In the light of all this information, since the teaching activities in informal environments have many positive effects on students, it can be said that the use of VIEs, which are accessible alternatives in these informal environments in the computer environment, is important during pandemic situation.By integrating VIEs into their lessons, teachers can achieve many gains such as the above-mentioned gains by realizing student-centered teaching.When the literature was scanned, no study was found to examine the processes of teachers' use of VIEs during the process in Turkey.It is expected that this study to fill this gap in the literature.The research aims to examine the teaching processes of teachers using VIEs during the Pandemic process and to reveal their teaching processes using VIEs according to their status of taking or not taking a course on teaching in informal environments.Hence, this study aims to address two research questions: (1) how do teachers carry out their teaching processes (before to, during, and post virtual informal teaching); and (2) is it significant for them to have taken or not taken a course on the subject?

METHOD Research Design
The descriptive method was used in this study to reveal features, actions, or views as they are in compliance with Özdemir & Doğruöz in their book entitled Bilimsel Araştırma Desenleri in 2020.For this research, we chose this method because it allows for a detailed examination and understanding of phenomena through the systematic collection and analysis of data.

Study Group
The study group of the research consisted of 93 teachers.The study group was determined by using the "Easy Access Sampling" method, one of the "Purposeful Sampling" methods.The basis of this method is based on completely available items, quickly, and easily accessible (Patton, 2005;as cited in Baltacı, 2018).Demographic and branch information of the study group are given in Table 1 and Table 2.In total, 93 participants stated and while 54 (58.1%) of them have not taken any ISE course, 39 (41.9%) had.

Data Collection and Analysis
Data collection tool which is a form consisting of 8 open-ended questions was applied to the participants.It was presented to the opinions of 3 experts, in the light of the feedback received, the data collection tool was revised and finalized to be applied by submitting it to the opinions again.In this way, the content validity of the data collection tool was ensured.The open-ended question form transferred to "Google Forms" and delivered to teachers with social media applications, pages and groups.It takes approximately 8 minutes to fill the form for each participant.Lastly the received answers (93 data) analyzed.The data obtained were evaluated by using the content analysis method, and the calculated frequency distribution (f) and percentage (%) values were tabulated.

RESULTS
In this section, research findings are given by considering the data obtained from the answers of the study group.
The "Taken" and "Not Taken" categories in the tables denote participants' attendance status in ISE courses."Firstly, we examined that what do participants know regarding virtual informal contexts (Table 3).Teachers, both courses taken and not-taken groups, frequently mentioned "Virtual Museums" (8,69%) particularly emphasizing the virtual alternative of informal environments, possibly indicating a need heightened by the pandemic.Despite some differences in knowledge levels between course-taken and not course taken teachers, a significant proportion from both groups demonstrated understanding of VIEs, suggesting that formal education may not be the sole determinant of familiarity with teaching in VIEs.
Second question investigated the importance of VIE activities in distance education process during the pandemic (Table 4).It was found that is important for the course-taken participants, stating that VIEs provide "Advantage in the Pandemic Process" (10.45%), "Motivating-Fun-Engaging" (9.7%), and "Permanent-Effective Learning" (8.95%); however, on the other hand, 1 participant (0.75%) adopted the idea that teaching in these environments is unimportant.The rate of not having this thought among the course-taken teachers corresponds to a percentage of 2.56%.Furthermore, teachers' recognition of the importance of VIEs, particularly during the pandemic, reflects their awareness of the advantages and efficiency of integrating VIEs into face-to-face courses.Third question examined which VIEs teachers use during the pandemic process (Table 5).It was found that the participants mostly integrated "Virtual Museums" (ISE Course Taken: 18.1%; ISE Course Not Taken: 13.3%) into their lessons, as they not taken any course participants.It was reached to the finding that the participants also use VIEs such as "Virtual Science Centers" (6.66%), "Virtual Zoos" (2.85%), and "Virtual National Parks" (2.85%).However, while some use the "Virtual Botanical Gardens" and "Virtual Aquariums" among non-course-taken teachers, none of the course-taken teachers have used them.The reason why "Virtual Museums" is the most used VIE in both participant groups can be envisaged as the fact that there are many virtual museum options in different types compared to other VIEs, which contain varieties that can appeal to every acquisition.We encountered the answer to one of the critical questions of our study in the third question.
Fourth question investigated how teachers plan VIE activities during the pandemic process (Table 6).Table 6 shows that that the participants in both groups mostly planned their virtual informal teaching activities "According to the Curriculum" (Course-taken Participants: 19.27%, Non-course-taken Participants: 14.68%).It has been found that the other priorities that the trained teachers based on when planning are "According to Student Expectations -Needs" (7.34%), "According to Educational Materials" (4.59%), "According to Time" (3.67%) and "According to the Features of VIEs".It can be interpreted that they attach importance to the principle of "Purposeful", which is sought in the lecture plans prepared for student-centered teaching activities organized in informal environments.While the teachers who prepared the plan "According to Administrative Procedures" were not in the course-taken group, one of the non-course-taken participants (0.92%) put administrative procedures at the center of planning.The opposite of this situation occurred when one of the trained teachers was planning "According to the Educational Philosophy" while the non-course-taken teachers, did not mention their educational philosophies.As with the third question, 14 (25.93%)non-course-taken teachers and 1 (2.56%) course-taken teacher did not plan, indicating heightened planning awareness among trained teachers, who often visit VIEs before lessons to tailor their preparation to environmental features.
Fifthly we examined how do teachers apply their plans for VIEs during the pandemic process (Table 7).The most frequently stated application method by teachers (13.40%) who have taken a course and who have not taken a course (18.55%) was "Sharing the Screen in Classes".The majority of the teachers stated that they used VIEs in their online lessons by providing information about the subject to the students before the lesson.concluded that course-taken teachers (12.37%) and the non-course-taken teachers (13.40%) applied VIEs using these platforms "EBA and Zoom" in this process.It is seen that the teachers who use "By Sending the Link of Virtual Environments" to their students to examine during the course or at the end of the course, apply these environments synchronously and asynchronously in their courses, including course-taken (9.27%) and have not taken participants (4.12%).Considering all the participants, among the 39 (41.93%) course-taken teachers, 2 (2.06%) teachers stated that they "Do Not Practice" about VIEs, and among 54 (58.07%) non-course-taken teachers, 10 (10,30%) people did not practice.In the light of this information, it can be said that whether to take the course does not have great importance on the application of VIEs in lessons.However, the participants who reported "Unrelated Answers" to the question are in both groups.When the irrelevant answers were examined, it was seen that the teachers gave answers such as lectures and materials at home.Sixth question examined which teaching methods/ techniques /models do teachers use in VIEs during the pandemic process (Table 8).The technical "Question and Answer" that was touched upon by the course-taken teachers (13.44%) and the non-course-taken teachers (12.60%) the most.The majority of the teachers stated that they did the question and answer with their students both at the time of the lesson and at the end of the lesson in VIEs.Course-taken teachers (8.40%) and have not taken a course teacher (10.08%) gave lessons through "Expository" in VIEs in this process.Non-course-taken teachers use techniques such as "Cooperative Learning", "Brainstorming" and "6 Hats" less frequently in lessons.But the course-taken teachers (8.40%) in terms of using the" Excursion/Observation" methods virtually in their courses and non-course-taken teachers (2.52%) mentioned them more.The importance of receiving courses in the use of these environments in the lessons is revealed.Considering all the participants, it was found that 2 (1.68%) of course-taken teachers and 10 (8.40%) non-coursetaken teachers stated that "I Do Not Use".Seventh question investigated how teachers evaluated students after VIE activities during the pandemic process (Table 9).For the seventh question, the most frequently mentioned evaluation method related to ISE among the coursetaken (9.52%) and have not taken a course participant (13.33%) was "Question and Answer".Teachers stated that at the end of their lessons in VIEs, they made question and answer questions with their students, in this way they repeated the lesson and evaluated their students.Among the types of "Based on the Criteria Used Evaluation", the teachers who evaluated with "Multiple Choice Question" at the end of the lessons are equal to course-taken (7.61%) and who have not taken a course participant (7.61%).It is seen that the teachers who evaluate at the end of the lesson with a "Discussion" prefer equal to the course-taken (3.80%) and have not taken a course participant (3.80%).Considering all participants, 39 (41.93%) of the course-taken teachers, 4 (3.80%)teachers stated that they "I Do Not Use" on VIEs, and among 54 (58.07%) teachers who have not taken a course, 10 (9.52%).
Last question investigated what kind of difficulties do teachers encounter during the pandemic in all VIE process (Table 10).According to the last question, the most addressed problem of the course-taken teachers (11.66%) and noncourse-taken teachers (11.66%) related to ISE was "Internet Access".Teachers expressed problems such as disconnection in their lessons in VIEs, and the lack of sufficient internet access for students to attend the lesson and stated that for these reasons, the participation in the lesson was low and they could not reach their students.
On the theme of "Infrastructure and Technical Problems", course-taken (9.16%) and non-course-taken teachers (10.83%) stated that they had problems caused by "Lack of Technological Devices" and that their students did not have devices such as tablets/phones that they could use in their lesson and therefore could not attend regular classes.It was concluded that the course-taken teachers (2.50%) did not have "Content-Appropriate Materials" for their courses and could not use VIEs in their lessons.It is seen that (2.50%) of the teachers who have difficulties in terms of "Time (Duration of the lesson)" have taken a course and those non-course-taken (7.50%).
In this process, it was concluded that teachers experienced personal difficulties when using virtual informal learning environments in lessons.It is seen that the teachers who have "Insufficient Knowledge" in this regard are evaluation part of their lessons.The course-taken teachers preferred the alternative assessment methods in which they evaluated the process as a whole more than the non-course-taken teachers.It seems that teachers tend to evaluate students with different types of assessments and as a whole, without adhering to a single method during the semester.
During the pandemic, the most difficulty encountered by the participants in all activities in VIEs is "Internet Access" in both groups.Teachers expressed problems such as disconnection in their lessons in VIEs, the lack of sufficient internet access for students to attend the lesson, and it was concluded that for these reasons, the low participation to lessons, they could not reach their students and they had problems with the "Lack of Technological Devices" used by the students.This result obtained is parallel to the opinions expressed by Bulunuz and Ünal (2020); Zajac, Randall and Holladay (2022) in their study; they experienced difficulties due to the Internet and the system at the beginning of the distance education process, and then students who did not have a computer and a smartphone had difficulty participating in the distance education process.
On the other hand, students could not participate classes regularly because of "Infrastructure and Technical Problems".The reasons such as disconnection of the participants, visual blurring in the devices that provide mutual communication such as microphone/camera, and not transmitting sound reduce the interaction and the teachers experience an additional difficulty during the lesson.This result is in parallel with the conclusion of Bilgiç and Tüzün's (2015) study in which they examined the problems experienced in distance education programs, that the mobile technologies of the students are insufficient to use the platforms, with the transfer of the course content to the electronic environment, and that there must be a solid infrastructure for the healthy progress of the distance education process.In addition, this result is parallel to the results of Dalgarno and Lee's (2010); Carraro and Trinder's (2021) studies that technology provides students with better learning potential in the learning environment.It is seen that the difficulties experienced by all participants during the planning phase are due to the lack of materials suitable for the content of the lesson or the insufficient lesson hours.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the course-taken teachers had less difficulty using VIEs in their lessons individually.The teachers in non-course-taken group did not integrate VIEs into their classes this term or they have more difficulty in doing so than the participants in the other group since their knowledge of informal environments is insufficient.It can be said that the most common problems experienced by the majority of each participant group are socioeconomic difficulties.As a result of this study, the course-taken teachers use VIEs more and more consciously than the non-course-taken participants.This result is parallel to the teacher effect finding in the study of Lin and Lan's (2015).At this point, it is important for teachers to plan their use of VIEs by focusing on the achievements in the curriculum and integrated these environments into their lessons by adopting a studentcentered approach in this process.In the evaluation studies conducted after the teaching activities using VIEs, they tend to evaluate the achievements, not this learning process.To make better use of the environments in the research, in-service training on teaching in informal environments for teachers can be increased and they can be encouraged to participate.Examining the content of the courses can be another research topic.In this way, the content of in-service training can be arranged according to the current educational needs of both students and teachers during the pandemic situation.Increasing the training and arranging the content will contribute greatly to the teachers' knowledge of the practices they will do in the future, and develop solutions to the problems/difficulties they have experienced or may experience.

Table 4 .
Responses regarding the importance of using VIEs

Table 6 .
Responses regarding the planning of VIE

Table 7 .
Responses to the use of VIEs in lessons during the pandemic *Educational Information Network in Turkey

Table 8 .
Methods/techniques/models used by teachers in teaching practices in VIEs during the pandemic process

Table 10 .
The difficulties encountered by teachers during the pandemic in all VIE process